Austerity is hip
Saturday March 1, 2008
Categories: Consumerism, Culture
Patrick Deneen alerts us to an encouraging new trend: making austerity cool. It's not really coming about out of an intent to be virtuous, but out of necessity, given the grim economic forecast. In an interesting twist, though, USA Today...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Um, this "crunchy lib" doesn't have much choice in this economy (even though, mercifully, I am going back to work shortly).
Absolutely! I'm going to save money by borrowing "Crunchy Conservatives" from the library instead of buying it. (Just kidding).
Seriously, I live in Southern California, and we're all getting some subtle effects from the burst housing bubble. I see very few houses for sale anymore. Flipping is out, which is good.
Personally, we're thinking twice about buying luxuries now. Sometimes the hard thing is that you're forgoing something that you could justify as a great experience for the children, for example, travel. Plane fare and accommodations can run into thousands of dollars for our large family. But we can have great memories and exposure to different cultures or locales when we travel. Still, there's college to think about. In fact, my husband has considered changing to another field of work, but right now we can't afford to lose his income. Not if we're going to keep paying for our house in So. Cal. So, it's a Catch-22.
What about all the jobs that are tied into goods and services that people buy when they have more money? Surely they'll be lost--what will people who run ski resorts, for example, do now?
What planet is this person living on??
It wasn't motivated by the economic forecast but this week I purchased an annual bus ticket and saved myself about 750 dollars a year.
Having just spend an hour trying to figure out how to maximize our tax refund, and looking to pay down those things that we most need and find a way to unload the rest, I can definitely here what you and Patrick and talking about, Rod.
Patrick's article is interesting. The possibility that some will discover the "coolness"--the satisfaction, the virtue--of a little bit of discipline and austerity is, I think at least, at least part of what Laura was getting at her post praising "green hippies." There is a style, a sense of place and appropriateness, which goes along with instinctively limiting yourself, and cutting back where you can. (More here.)
I recently stopped using credit cards and closed all but two accounts. I'll be closing these last two once the wife gets a couple of monthly auto bills switched to her card. I refuse to be in debt any more (notable exception: mortgage).
I'm not even going to play the 'Oh, I pay the balance in full each month' game. Nope. I've done that too. You know what? You still spend more than you otherwise would with cash. I'm not even going to do it for the 1-5% cash back or purchase protection or any of the other benefits. Not worth it.
Less purchasing, less stuff. More awareness of consumption.
Great work Rod.
Forgive the equations but this kind of thing seems so obvious it deserves a simplified style I think.
Sacrifice family and fertility for luxuries/status = bad.
Authentic status/esteem = marriage and family
All things being equal, spend money for happy family = good.
Marketers succeed in inventing desires in us = bad
Marketers keep us poor = bad
Stimulating desire for intrinsic good of children = good
Store up treasure in a place where its returned with AMAZING interest = good.
Baubles? = moths eat, rust destroys, burglars steal.
What a wonderful trend this is Rod, marriage and family = happy people.
What's old is new. Voluntary simplicity was a core value of the back-to-the-land movement in the 70s and never went away. Our grandparents and the generations before them were frugal and thought of it as being the right way to live.
My husband has only worked 4 of the past 15 months. Our take home income, with the tax adjustment, is under 2/3 of what we used to take in. We eat out even less than before (we can make everything we love perfectly to our taste) but other than that not much has changed except that we are not saving as much for retirement. We have always lived within our means and valued saving, so being 50% employed leaves us still able to pay all our bills. Having him home means dinner is started when I walk in the door - sheer heaven - and he frequently makes apple crisps and cornbread, in addition to fixing things we would have paid someone to do. He put in decades at thankless jobs to support our family so he is welcome to stay home for the time it takes to find a job he can enjoy for his last working decade.
We are not afraid about the coming storm. Walgreen's sells toothpaste and shampoo for $1/ container, we cook from scratch and are quite happy entertaining ourselves by taking walks or reading to each other from library books. He is thinking about planting vegetables and herbs this spring, and we may join a CSA with neighbors. If we need to cut more, we can drop internet service - the local coffeeshops have free wireless.
"I learned early with Thoreau that a man is rich in proportion to the numbers of things he can afford to let alone; and in view of this I have always considered myself extremely well-to-do." - Albert Jay Nock
Monthly gasoline: $25 (8 gallons/200 miles)
Food + personal hygiene + cleaning supplies: $100
Rent + utilities + phone + wi-fi internet + cable = $700
Long-distance calling card = $12.19
Cellphone: none
Auto insurance: $46
Auto maintenance: $25 (avg.)
Entertainment: public library
Total: $908/mo.
"Analysts say a shift toward thrift could have huge implications for an economy driven largely by consumer spending."
Economy Fitful, Americans Start to Pay as They Go
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: February 5, 2008
For more than half a century, Americans have proved staggeringly resourceful at finding new ways to spend money...
nytimes.com/2008/02/05/business/05spend.htm
Long before the bad economic news, I chose to pull back on spending because I was in a horrible job position--working 70 hours a week (on salary), two to three weekends a month. I decided that If I didn't have to spend so much money, I wouldn't be forced to stay in a job like that. I wrote the following very crunchy con song (to an original tune)
Oh that rats that raced in infamy,
I swear they've got more dignity than me,
So they don't get my sympathy
And I never thought I'd consider this,
I'm still not a communist,
But I have to think that we can do things differently
So I told them I was moving on,
You've got two weeks and then I'm gone,
And I wrote it down and dated it accordingly.
And they didn't even ask me why,
They just shook my hand and said good-bye.
And they quickly filled my space with a warm body.
So I put my things into a box,
I brought them home and just like rocks,
I threw them at the sky with all my energy.
And I think they hit the ground somewhere,
But I can't be sure because I wasn't there.
Like a metaphor for all that has become of me.
And I cursed the day that I first thought,
"I must have what my neighbor's got".
Because that's the day I established my priorities.
And I know that I am more than just,
A consumer with want and lust,
And my fate is to serve more than the economy.
(Chorus)
I wanna hate things I don't need,
I wanna become disgusted and fastidious.
I wanna hate things borne of greed,
So I don't have to live like this anymore.
I haven't changed too many things in response to the economic climate, but then, I've lived below my means for about 10 years. I don't have any debt. I don't have a lot of 'stuff'. I live in a small apartment (about 600 square feet). I get most of my books and many DVDs at the library. I take my lunch to work every day, unless I have a work-related meeting that requires me to go out for lunch. I bake my own bread, and I eat a lot of nutritious-but-cheap food like rice and beans, split pea soup, etc.
One thing I did change recently: I quit the gym. When I'd joined, it was convenient to my job, and it was about $50/month. I realized a few months ago that over the years, it had crept up in price until, including my locker fee, it was $98/month. So I quit the gym and I bought a handful of workout DVDs on sale, and now I work out in my living room at 5:30am, and I supplement that by walking after work. And I put the $98 into savings each month, instead.
We set out to live a more austere lifestyle. Last year, we bought an old 1920s bungalow just at the edge of downtown, so we can walk many places that we go. My husband works from home and I have a studio (www.HempelStudios.com) downtown. We're putting in a garden this spring. We save 10% of my husband's income for retirement. Honestly, I feel like we live a very rich lifestyle! We enjoy a beautiful home and delicious meals from fresh, organic food. Our lives are filled with art and local music. We are able to travel on the cheap through different creative avenues.
BUT! This year, we are hemmorraging cash. We just I just bought a new car and we are shelling out a lot of cash to adopt. And we're planning a trip to India to pick up said child. (The old pick-up truck that I was driving just wouldn't work with a child seat.)
That tears it! If austerity is now "cool" then it's time for me to run up the credit cards and buy a McMansion. I can't bear the thought of being associated with anything trendy.
This is "austerity"?
Not running up the credit cards, living within your means... this is called "common sense". It's not a "trend" or a fad.
Sadly, there will be some who suddenly refuse to be participants in the economy, they suddenly decide to engage in NO risk at all, which is bad news for the economy. On the other hand, there's still plenty who are continuing down the road toward bankruptcy... they're not good either.
What needs to be, is that people make wise decisions, only engage in reasonable risk and use their money wisely. This is good, not bad. It's also not "austerity". It is simply "moderation".
Yes, I too want to holler at Dave saying "I am debt free!", but it won't happen for a while yet... Have about 3 or 4 years left.
And when we do, we're not goign to live "austere", we're going to be wise with our money, keep it productive, and so on. That nice income well into 6 digits will not be stuck in a sock... It'll fund charity, it'll fund other businessmen who want to start up like I struggled so long to do. It'll fund home loans, it'll stay busy doing good stuff. And I'll "live like no one else" at retirement, too.
Well, I disbelieve in austerity, seeing that I'm a founding member of the Order of Our Lord the Gluttonous Man and Winebibber. (See Luke 7:34) I do believe in living the way I want to live, but I don't see that as austerity. If I make my own bread, for instance, which I do, I don't see that as seizing the moral high ground. I do it because I like to. And I looove eating it hot out of the oven, dripping with butter and honey, and I enjoy watching others eat it too. So there's no austerity involved. I don't shop much because I can't be bothered. It's a real pain in the neck to schlep through the mall.
As for this--
It may be that this period through which we lived - our fifty year petroleum party - will force us out of a kind of fanciful childhood through a new kind of habituation in austerity.
HAHAHA . . . what in tarnation is this guy talking about?? Oh heck yes, my fanciful childhood . . . now where did I put that tutu and tiara, anyway? And bring me my magic wand! And another plate of cookies! : )
"... changed your spending behavior?"
makes me think of Congress...
I mean...
it's maturity to spend no more than what is taken in...
apparently our leadership lacks such maturity...
and that's a long term problem...
the greatness of this country is threatened by the overspending of our government as much as by the overspending of the majority of its citizens...
if this "new trend" of austerity makes it way to Washington DC, then perhaps the demise of this great country will be avoided...
frugality faith hope love joy peace to all...
Impeach God...
I'd be perfectly happy to have real "austerity" in Washington DC.
Look at the Constitutional requirements for the Feds and fund ONLY those.
That would cut our federal budget by about 65 percent.
And then I think it could be cut at least 5 to 10 percent more. But how can we have "austerity" when everyone's demanding all thier wants be given from the God in DC?
My wife has been staying home with our children (we have 5) for the last 13 years. We have two 1996-vintage cars. We still live in the first house we ever bought. I haven't been on a "vacation" since 2004 (although I send my wife and the kids someplace every year). My idea of wild spending is paying for my daughters' music lessons, my son's preschool fee and my other son's dentist bill. Eating out ? Little Caesar's/Mickey D's, and not often. And yes, I do work full time---60-70 hour weeks are considered routine in my line of work.
Naturally, I also pay an annual five-figure-plus tax bill, and the first of those five figures is NOT a "1". Gotta keep the SocSec Set in golf-green fees, after all.
By USA Today's reckoning, I must be cool beyond belief.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
Yes, we are on austerity. My husband is a Lutheran pastor, and our collections are down so much that he must forego part of his salary and is looking for odd-jobs so that we can survive. Fortunately, we are debt-free. Before this happened, I gave up my job last summer to concentrate our church ministry. I may have to go back to work by summer. In 28+ years in the parish this has never happened to us.
Although always careful with money (having raised and educated four children), austerity and frugality are our way of life now. By the way, I love "Crunchy Cons" and its philosophy of life.
Who are the people that find joy in people living at Third World living standards, who smile at the thought of economic decline? Unfortunately for them, they lack basic economic understanding. You do not destroy an economy by saving, you make it grow faster. People will accumulate savings and those savings will grow, thus allowing even greater consumption in the future. Savings will be invested in new businesses and production. Maybe there will be fewer purchases of singing fish and iPods, but there will be purchases, and our green and anti-capitalist friends will be complaining about those too.
A digression.[This is a friendly info drop.]
Sig, RE: Honey for that yummy bread.
Just saw a PBS special on Colony colapse.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bees/
(Don't read it if you don't want to know.)
But suffice it to say, while looking at causes, the scientists were astonished to find how weak and susceptible the bees were. They think it was due to all the travelling and exposure to multitudinous pesticides during pollination season. The bees and their hives had high pesticide concentrations. To avoid them, some say "Stick to local honey that is produced by bees who don't travel around."
It was interesting. Let's hope the bees make it back this year on time. Love that honey.
Sorry folks, austerity isn't making it to DC yet, and probably never will. Though $3+ gas and public transportation fare hikes have raised expenses a bit lately, there is still very full employment and housing prices inside the Beltway are pretty stable. So long as all the neighbors of all the politicians are still buying their Evian and sending their kids to $25K/year prep schools, the "solutions" to the angst in fly-over country will be bail-outs and hand-outs, not living within one's means. And it's a self-perpetuating thing: more government programs (or at least holding them steady) means employment and wages remain strong in DC, so the politicians will never "get it."
Good posts above.
To be perfectly honest, the linked article seemed a bit frivolous. I'm talking to middle-class moms up here who are making much more serious cuts to their budgets (as in essentials). Can't begin to imagine how it's effecting the elderly and the working poor. Maybe it's because of the cold snowy winter, high heating costs, high gas prices AND higher food prices. But people are seriously cutting back in our part of New England. And I'm sure it's all across the board in Northernmost states this winter. Must be nice to live somewhere without the soaring heat bills.
I'm taking it as a good exercise in frugality. Real Strength comes not from what one has but from what one can do without. (Was that Thoreau?) Still true.
And it's also a good opportunity to rely more on God, I'd say.
Peace.
Here's another HDT quote.
"When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality."
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Using "fad" or "cool" to describe a trend is one of the most efficient ways to sneer at the people doing whatever said trend is, as well as the trend itself- if it even is one.
It's like calling organic food a "fad" instead of recognizing industrial processed pseudo-food for what it is - a fad and a boondoggle.
Until advertising in the post-war period taught young minds that having and throwing away were the American way to live, thriftiness was considered a high virtue, common sense, and not an option. It was during the Hoover administration that some geniuses "discovered" that human desire was endless (I wonder who skipped Sunday school at the turn of the century?) and could be tickled with marketing. They saw it as the promise of eternal prosperity. Unfortunately, the depression intervened and it was not until after the war that the program could be initiated.
And Sig - I too am looking around for my tiara! What a joke. My dad taught public school. He started at under $2,500/year in 1956 and mom stayed home cooking, sewing, mending, painting, sewing the curtains, etc. They never, ever, went into debt.
Living frugally is simply common sense. Peoples' priorities have been so messed up for so long, that common sense is now considered a fad. Well, who cares what they call it, as long as people live it.
There are many common-sense ways to save hundreds of $ per year. Make your own brewed coffee instead of going to Starbucks. Spend 10 minutes making your lunch before heading to work, instead of buying a sandwich at Togo's. Etc Etc Etc.
Two sets of austerity measures for me, one a gift from our governor (free public transportation for seniors), and one a decision--bring my lunch to work.
I dearly WANT to pay someone to clean our house twice a month, but my husband has convinced me that he and the kids will do it instead.
I dearly WANT to pay someone to clean our house twice a month, but my husband has convinced me that he and the kids will do it instead.
I have my house cleaned twice a month. It pains my frugal husband, but he's not quite pained enough to commit to doing it himself. I've been having my house cleaned for 11 years now (not by inexpensive immigrants, either, lest anyone jump to conclusions), and there are a lot of non-essentials I will give up -- e.g. cable tv, internet access, cell phone, Starbucks -- before I give up the housecleaner. I'm out of the house for 12 hours a day, working and commuting, and as long as I can afford it, I'm cutting myself this slack.
I love reading pre WWII-England novels where young Mrs. ffollet-Twyggs is admired by all her friends because she makes do with just one man outside a daily woman in the mornings. Hehehe!
Mrs. Pringle
(debt free, BTW, except for the mortgage)
I'm lucky enough to have a permanent job after several years of "temping" and I am making an effort to both put more of a percentage of my income in my 401(K) and to actually open a savings account.
I realized recently that (aside from the 401(K)) I spend more on gifts for friends and family and on gifts to charity than I save (a lot more, since I've been saving 0% aside from the 401(K)). This year, I'm going to give smaller gifts and not give to charity until the end of the year, after I've put some savings in the bank.
Hooray for this blog. For years I have been touting to family and friends who could ill afford to 'keep up with the Jones'" to go on an austerity program. Rather than whine and cry about what they don't have, I suggest that they thank the Lord for all that they have been blessed with. We are not all created equal. Some are born into wealth,some not, but it is how well you control what you do have within your means and by spending less. Does the doggie really need the $45. bath by a pro? How many toys do your kids really need. They won't love you any more or less. Must little kiddies dress in designer wear? Start cutting back in all areas. Try using that thing against the wall with four burners and cook a homemade meal. With less, our minds begin to feel less cluttered, we can think much clearer about what's really important. The basics: food, water and a roof over our heads, a safe country.
I have recently become very aware of our families excess. When I see the corporate leaders excess I have realized that conserving on any income is common sense. I needed this wake up call to slow down. We do not need all that we consume. I feel that at this time in our lives less is more...
I have recently given up the gardner, $50.00 hair cuts (now $l6.00), I pump regular at the gas station, I have cut my Cable Tv to Basic...and will continue to look for other ways to economize.
I am planning on purchasing savings bonds for the grandchildren for Christmas instead of a carload of toys they will get one.
As I am writing this I am listening to the news and hear of a man who killed himself and his family as it was the only honorable way to settle his debt....
I am greatful for what I have and will not abuse my good fortune in the future.
Suzanne
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